Army complaints role 'pointless'

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The father of one of four soldiers who died at the Deepcut army barracks in Surrey has branded a new complaints commissioner role as "pointless".

Geoff Gray, whose son Pte Geoff Gray died in 2001, said Dr Susan Atkins would be a "toothless tiger".

The woman who set up the Independent Police Complaints Commission will take up her new job as Service Complaints Commissioner (SCC) in January.

But she will not be able to conduct investigations or challenge decisions.

The appointment follows Nicholas Blake QC's report in March 2006 into the Deepcut deaths, in which he called for an armed forces ombudsman to be appointed with their own independent powers of investigation.

This person will have no power whatsoever Geoff Gray

But Armed Forces Minister Bob Ainsworth said the SCC role would not go as far as that.

"What we are looking at here is effectively an audit role," he said. "We don't want to erode the position of the [military] chain of command."

Dr Atkins said: "It is my fervent aim that service women and men will have confidence that raising their concerns through me will result in their complaints being dealt with properly, and any unacceptable behaviour stopped."

Inquest verdicts

She added that she hoped to meet the families of the Deepcut soldiers to discuss their concerns about how the system previously worked.

But Mr Gray said: "She is not going to be able to intervene in how the complaint is being handled - it will be passed down the chain of command.

"This person will have no power whatsoever. It is a toothless tiger. It is pointless."

The four soldiers who died at Deepcut between 1995 and 2002 were: Pte Sean Benton, 20, from Hastings, East Sussex; Pte Cheryl James, 18, from Llangollen, north Wales; Pte James Collinson, 17, from Perth, Scotland; and Pte Geoff Gray, 17, from Seaham, County Durham.

They all died of gunshot wounds.

Inquests into the deaths recorded a verdict of suicide in Pte Benton's case and open verdicts for the other three.